Forget the 'Vette; here's how to fly...
Category: Rides...
Posted Wednesday, March 01, 2006 at 05:14 PM [GMT-6]

Meet the Eclipse 500:

Photo

Six passengers, max cruising speed of 375 knots, range of 1,280 nautical miles, 41,000' ceiling. Available in June, 2006 for a mere $1.5 million.

Yeah, that sounds like a lot, but it's about a million dollars less than most corporate jets. An article in today's Wall Street Journal estimates that the numbers of these "microjets" (known in the trade as VLJs or "Very Light Jets") will increase by 400 or 500 each year starting in 2007. That could eventually make for some very crowded skies.

OK, now that I think about it, why would I want to be another lemming in the crowd? If I'm going to spend that kind of dough, I'll just stick with a Bugatti Veyron. After all, only 299 other people can have one each year.

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Comments

Ugh.

Soon the skies will be crawling with simpletons and riff-raff, and I will be forced for any respite to retire to the seas on my yacht.

Posted by: Brian at March 2, 2006 06:06 AM

Put me down for one of these,

http://www.moller.com/skycar

VTOL/ highway compatible, 375 MPH, 20 MPG.

Or one of these, see link below.

Posted by: Larry S. at March 2, 2006 12:32 PM

Larry, that is way too cool!

I'd feel more comfortable, however, if their test flights were, um, untethered.

Posted by: Eric at March 2, 2006 12:43 PM

True story: On waking the morning of January 1, 2000, my youngest son, then 9, immediately went to the window, looked out at the sky for a minute and said, "Where's the flying cars?" thinking it was the 21st century.

I didn't have the energy to try to explain the millennium/ century change was a year later, but we went to the web, typed in "flying cars," and found the Moller site. It was basically the same page as today, except thev've added the crane. Still not in production. The FAA has eased some restrictions on flying cars (and other personal aircraft) in the meantime though, making it an idea whose reality approacheth at a still-sluggishly ground-bound pace.

Note the Moller car is slated to be auto-flown and around $80,000 each, and the other one has air bags. The NTSB has yet to weigh in. There won't be anyone lifting out of traffic at a stoplight for a LOOONG time.

Posted by: Larry S. at March 2, 2006 01:46 PM

Look what NASA is doing for personal aviation.

http://sats.nasa.gov/

Posted by: Larry S. at March 2, 2006 03:34 PM
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